Premier insists teacher commissioner was turfed and didn’t resign

Premier Wab Kinew said he stands by his remark that Manitoba’s teacher commissioner was fired.

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt initially told the Free Press Bobbi Taillefer had resigned on April 7, after it was reported she was working from Florida.

Following the article’s publication last week, Kinew told the media the government had fired the bureaucrat, a claim she called “blatantly false.”

Taillefer was given the job of reviewing claims of teacher misconduct in 2024.

“Everything I told you last week was true,” said the premier Friday.“We told this person that we were going to go separate ways, and then we said: ‘Do you want this to be described publicly as a termination or a resignation, and she chose resignation.”

Kinew accused Taillefer of “parsing words.” He said the government is aware she has retained legal counsel. Asked why she was given a contract to help with the transition to a replacement commissioner, the premier referred to it as severance.

“It was designed to maybe keep the situation quiet, but I don’t think it accomplished that purpose,” he said.

On Monday, the province appointed David Yeo, who has held several positions in the education department, as the interim commissioner.

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Schmidt said Yeo will bring “experience and stability,” to the role during the search for a permanent replacement.

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca

Morgan Modjeski
Reporter Signal

Morgan Modjeski is a news reporter and multimedia producer for the Free Press.  Read more about Morgan.

Every piece of reporting Morgan produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.